MotoGP Phillip Island: Lap one mistake curtails Crutchlow’s potential

WithU Yamaha’s Cal Crutchlow returned to points scoring at Phillip Island with a 13th place finish in the Australian GP on Sunday.

A wet start to the day turned to a dry track in time for the 27-lap thriller with Crutchlow launching from 17th on the grid. A poor start found the Brit regrouping from 21st before making his way into the points by lap 13. Running 12th across the final third of the race, the 36-year-old lost out to Miguel Oliveira on the final lap to collect three points on the return down under.

“Honestly speaking, I’m a bit disappointed with the result but I caused it myself, I did a mistake during the start and fell back almost to last, so I had to come back through,” Crutchlow admitted.

“My problem was in the first lap, I had no heat in the brake, I got a good start, went into turn one and ran wide and the bike started to shook and I went backward.

“I was pleased with my pace in the race,” he continued. “I just picked my way through and passed some guys. If I would have went with Johann [Zarco] and rode the way I should have ridden here, I could have stayed there as I had the pace.

“I felt really good, the best all weekend so it’s a shame for the result, but the last five laps I just had no tyre left. But, I was quite pleased with the bike and felt in control with the lap time I was doing. Now, we go to Malaysia and try with Fabio [Quartararo] to win there, because now all we can do is try to win.”